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Stories about the World, traveling and friendship.Thu, 19 May 2016 08:18:21 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.4.1http://writingtravelers.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/travel.pngwritingtravelershttp://writingtravelers.com
3232An unexpected love story in Italy.http://writingtravelers.com/europe/an-unexpected-love-story-in-italy/
Wed, 18 May 2016 09:03:41 +0000http://writingtravelers.com/?p=134Funny thing about Italy is that most of the people adore it even if they have never been there. But that was not the case this time. I went there simply because it happens to be a country that has a city by the same name as my surname.
A museum in Reggio Emilia.

I never adored it because of the language or famous food or anything. I went there just to feel like I own the whole city. And I didn’t expect anything special. I didn’t expect to fall in love with this country. But I guess that all the best love stories happen when you meet someone and fall inlove unexpectedly. And that is what happend to me and Italy. An unexpected love story.

The first thing that caught my heart was Italians. I met my first Italian friend in Norway and was amazed by how excited he was about life. About every single thing you can get from it. He could wake up in the middle of the night just to walk to the top of the mountain for the sake of sunset. Enjoy. Every. Moment. It feels like an absolute Italian moto.
The same thing I felt when I was in Italy. I met up with probably 20 Italians and was surprised by their infinate positive energy. If we wanted to dance, we stopped the car, got out of it and danced on the street at night. If we wanted to see museums, we just went there and it was open even at 10 in the evening. If we wanted to eat pizza, we met 15 other Italians and went for the best pizza place they knew. I could go on like this for months. You want something? Just go for it. They were probably the most inspiring people I had ever met. Their ability to have fun is contagious.
By the way, the language isn’t an issue. It doesn’t matter if you don’t speak italian or they don’t speak english. For some reason, when they tell you something, you understand.

The second thing that made me fall inlove, no surprises there, was food. Starting from pasta, pizza, gelato and continuing with many other kinds of food I could never learn the names of. I always thought that it is just another stereotype, but the love for food is an acctual Italian thing. They talk about it, they enjoy it, they make it and they share it. That is just how it goes…
One of the last days in Italy I spent with a typical Italian family. The mother cooked the food. Like 7 different kinds of it. The father sat down and waited for the food while offering me a self-made beer. Talking about national dishes and food tasting experiences he had had. The mother kept on bringing food and I was full after the third dish already. But you don’t say no to food. No, not in Italy you don’t. So I ate. I ate so much I had never eaten before in my whole life. And you know what? The next day I woke up and I was still full. That’s Italy, man.

Rooftops of Bologna.

The third thing I could never forget was the rooftops of Bologna. I have to mention that I am quite scared of hights. But when you get a chance to look at the rooftops of Bologna, you simply agree. And you take pictures with them with shaky hands. And you love it. I am sure you have heard the expression that “all the roads take you to Rome”. At that particular moment you see that it isn’t just an expression. All roads literally take you to Rome. And you can see that from the rooftops.

Football is the fourth thing I would like to talk about. Obsession with football. I think you haven’t really been in Italy if you did not try espresso or watch a football match. Those are another 2 things Italy is famous for. But football had specially caught my attention, because I usually do not watch it. I am not a big fan of it, I guess. But here I went to a local game with my friend who was part of the team and I watched the whole game with my mouth open. When you see a match like that you see that side of their culture you can’t find in their everyday behavior. They run around. They get angry. Then they scream: “BELLO, BELLO! ” a lot. They hug each other. They run even more. And they use a lot of words you could never find in Italian dictionary. Sit down and enjoy the show, my dear.

Parma football stadium.

Yes, as I said before, I didn’t expect much from this country, but in the end I came home from it absolutely inlove. In the airport I even bought a book called: “An Italian in Italy” written by Beppe Severgnini just to keep feeling alive. As if I still were there. A Beautiful feeling. A good life.

A Night in Italy
]]>Pros and cons of being a tourist in Netherlands.http://writingtravelers.com/europe/pros-and-cons-of-being-a-tourist-in-netherlands/
Tue, 17 May 2016 16:19:17 +0000http://writingtravelers.com/?p=122For starters I have to say that Netherlands is a really amazing and beautiful country. It combines European charm with something so unique and different you can find only in Netherlands. I guess that every country has it’s own feeling. And the one that Netherlands has is the feeling of peace and artistic freedom. I must admit that it is pretty likeable.
The canal of Amsterdam.

Pros.

First thing I would like to emphasise would be the possibility to get to Amsterdam in a very cheap way, if you travel from Belgium. You can just simply take a bus from Brussels to Amsterdam for 9 euros one way. Imagine that you pay only 9 euros to get from one country to another for the same price you could buy a sandwich and coffee in, let’s say, Norway. By the way you can find the particular bus here.

The second thing I would suggest you to get as a traveler in Amsterdam would be an I amsterdam city card. This card gives you many benefits and it absolutely pays itself off. Why?

You can use all kinds of public transport to move around the city for free. This allows you to see the city not only from the eyes of a tourist, but from the eyes of a local as well. Of course, if you are that kind of person who must see all of the tourist attractions, go ahead, but do not hesitate to jump off the tram wherever and surprise yourself with an unexpected experience. I mean, you never know whom and where you can meet that will make you remember this trip forever.

Another thing you can do as an I amsterdam city card holder is to take the chance and see the city from it’s many canals. You can choose between different kinds of boats and go on approximately 25 min long canal cruise. This way you see a lot more than an everyday city, for example, people who live on boats. A short time-lapse video from my Amsterdam trip is available here.

Artis Zoo was a place to remember. Not only it consists of buildings full of different animal species, but you can also find Botanic gardens, Microbe museum and parks to wonder around. What surprised me the most was that majority of the animals were not caged. They could freely walk around you. You just simply walk into a building and some monkey just jumps off the tree and lands on your feet. You walk farther and come across chameleon who is just a touch away from you. Animals are all around you.

Botanic Gardens in Amsterdam.

As an I amsterdam city card holder you get free entry into many museums as well. Some free giveaways too.

The third thing what came upon my mind was that Amsterdam makes you experience the things you would not normally agree to do. For starters, visiting a Sex Museum. I never thought I would go to the Sex Museum, but Amsterdam with it’s Red light districts, cannabis posters and space cakes just leads you to visit those kinds of places. Stepping outside your comfort zone- that is what this city forces you to do.

Penguins of Artis Zoo.

The fourth and the last thing that I want to mention is what happens with travelers whenever they are abroad. In a foreign city it is always great to wonder around without knowing where you are going to. Everything is new. Everything seems interesting and compelling. This rarely happens to us in our hometown.

Cons.

For some reason Netherlands charmed me so greatly that I am struggling to find some cons of being a tourist in this country. But one thing I did find. While I promenaded down the street on a day time, everything seemed artistic, beautiful and amazingly charming. But during the night hours I was feeling uncomfortable. I walked around by myself, seeking new adventures and felt like someone is gonna sneak on me from the back even though I was the only one on the street. It felt like in a terrible horror movie, where you suddenly see wicked and stoned faces everywhere. And the things that you enjoyed on the morning, felt frightening in the dark. And you keep on walking and telling yourself: “It is all in you head, all in your head..”

And so it is. It really is all in your head. If you want to enjoy every moment of your trip, you will. Believe me. Amsterdam is calling, so I have to pick up.

See you next time.

]]>Some random facts about Norway.http://writingtravelers.com/europe/norway/some-random-facts-about-norway/
Fri, 15 Jan 2016 12:11:03 +0000http://writingtravelers.com/?p=110Once upon a time I used to live in North Norway. I lived there for more than 2 years. While living there I, time by time, came across some interesting facts about this country. Maybe it is not accurate to call them facts, but lets say- observations.

If you have a choice, do not buy the bread in Oslo-Gardemon airport. It is not tasty. Actually most of the bread I had there had almost no taste. They are used to freezing the bread. And it is common to buy the bread in the shops and put it in the freezer once you get home. Of course they have a lot of great bakeries, but the frozen bread is a thing there.

If the currency of your country is not euros or dollars, I suggest you to take the cash with you, because it is possible that the ATM does not accept your card. I had several problems with this due to some technical
problems in the shops. It was not possible to pay buy card, the cash machine would’t accept my card as a result I had to stay in the airport for 6 hours without any possibility to buy food.

If you are used to having free-wifi wherever you go, be prepared that in Oslo-Gardemon airport you can get access to wifi for 2 hours if you are using Norwegian phone card.

If it is your first time in North Norway and you come from a flat country, you may be positively shocked by the beauty of the nature here. North Norway has many fjords and mountains. I spent my first months with surprised eyes and open mouth. I just couldn’t believe the perfection. And when you are taking the buss from the airport to your destination, there is a 90% chance that you are gonna have to drive through the mountain. For some it may not be a big deal, but if you had never seen any mountains, then… man, you are driving through a freakin’ mountain! How surreal is that?

Gender equality is really important here. There are no jobs only for female or only for man. So if you are a tiny girl like me, there is a possibility that nobody is going to help you with your heavy baggage. Not because they are impolite,- exactly the opposite- they believe that helping in this case would be impolite.

As you may have heard, in North Norway there are polar nights and polar days. As I came there while it was the polar night, the situation was that when I woke up, it was dark. Around 10 it was possible to see some light spots in the sky, but no sunlight. The sky got a little pink around 11 o’clock, but at 2 it was already dark again. And if you are not used to that, you get tired a lot. The first week I spent almost only sleeping. I had a lack of energy. But don’t worry- it gets better. You find the ways to deal with it- use extra vitamin D, go for a long walk, use the sun-lamp and so on.

I know this is not the only country where the shops are closed on Sundays, but for me it was something I was not prepared for. Where I come from, the shops are always open. Even in the nighttime it is possible to find a place to buy some food. So if you are used to shop every day, better buy more on Saturday so that you do not starve on Sunday. The same goes for official holidays. The shops are closed so be prepared for that.

]]>My favourite travel movies (part one)http://writingtravelers.com/stories/my-favourite-travel-movies-part-one/
Tue, 12 Jan 2016 14:31:44 +0000http://writingtravelers.com/?p=102I have read several travel movie lists which collect a lot of movies, but none of those lists are mine. So I had to change that. I present you some of the movies which have inspired me to get on moving on this life.

The Way. (to watch the trailer, click here)I feel like I must write about this movie first, because it is quite important at this point in my life, as I am planning to walk the Camino. As you may have understood by now, this movie tells about one mans journey trough El Camino de Santiago. What is specific about this movie is that the man did not walk it because of religious reasons as it may seem. He had his own idea about why he should walk it and he was not willing to share it openly with others.

This movie represents a very special journey experienced by a very special boy. It is not only a travel movie. It is about life, about love, about family, about all the values which you could ever have in your life.

Into the Wild. (watch the trailer here)I believe that there could not exist a travel movie list without this one. It is a true story that has changed and inspired lives of many. It is about a men who called himself Alexander Supertramp and he was searching for himself. About a man who just wanted to live, to travel and to just be. He was tired of the everyday life and decided to fulfil his dream. I guess there is a little Alexander Supertramp hiding inside every of us.

The Night on Earth. (for the trailer, click here)This one is for sure nor a typical, nor commercial travel movie. It is directed by Jim Jarmusch who is kind of a fan of irritating the spectators. This movie takes us to 5 different countries and tells you the story of cab drivers and passengers of 5 different countries. Jarmusch has very unusual sense of humor. If you do too, you should watch this piece of art. I suggest you to watch it with subtitles if you are not a polyglot.

All the Invisible Children (click here for the trailer)Also for this movie I suggest you to use subtitles. The movie is cinematically rich and simply beautiful at the same time. It tells the story about different children of our planet, about life, about the rich and the poor. Quite frankly, it shows the reality of our world. Powerful.

The Art of Travel. (Trailer here)I feel like the title of the movie fully represents it. It really is about the art of travel. It tells the story about a man who just decided to leave behind everything he had and to do something for himself. Many countries, different cultures and people from all over the world. Sweet.

Blood Diamond (Watch the trailer here)A different perspective about traveling. Blood diamond is a movie about nature of people. Where are we ready to travel for money? How far are we willing to go just to get those paper pieces called money? Did I say that DiCaprio is in it?

]]>My best travel moments of 2015.http://writingtravelers.com/stories/my-best-travel-moments-of-2015/
Tue, 12 Jan 2016 10:57:54 +0000http://writingtravelers.com/?p=93In the year of 2015 I have been lucky enough to travel to 7 different countries. Here are some best moments from it.

April in Vienna and Graz, Austria.

Vienna

For April it was surprisingly warm in Austria. You could see people in shorts and tops. And if you had come here expecting relatively cold weather, you better start taking off your clothes. Believe me or not (better believe) the highlight apart from the good weather was the fact that you can wonder around the city by feet, without using GPS or a map, but still find amazing places overall. Doesn’t matter if you are in Vienna or in Graz, you can walk around alone and still feel like the spirit of the city surrounds you. You can find museums, monuments, unbelievably beautiful parks and really nice people wherever you go. If Austria hadn’t been in my travel list, I would’t have ever known how simple it is to love it!

July in North Norway.

Mountains of Norway

Summer in North Norway was unbelievable experience. Polar day is a thing. It could be called a highlight, but I am rather going to call it a brightlight. It seems so surreal that you are sitting on a bench and enjoying the mountains which are everywhere you look (if you are, for example, in a little town (commune) called Narvik). Imagine to have two times more energy than usually just because you get sunlight for 24 hours a day. Imagine a walk on the top of the mountain while barefoot…

August in Poland.

In August I spent 2 weeks in Poland which gave me a chance to acquaintance contrasts of this country. Starting from big cities like Warsaw and Krakow till complete opposite- a really small town called Klimontow. The thing is that in Europe we get a lot of urban cities with amazing culture and architecture and cities of Poland were no different. It surprised me with it’s great museums and restaurants, beautiful churches, creative people and free concerts. Even though the city life was rememberable, the real deal was the country side. Klimontow with it’s friendly people who barely could speak English, running chickens everywhere and the sound of the rooster who wakes you up every morning at 5 o’clock. Cities are great, of course, but, man, my experience in Klimontow was memorable for a city girl.

A beautiful castle in Poland.

October in Belgium and Netherlands.

Namur, Belgium.

Although I expected to visit only Brussels, I had a chance to see a city called Namur. Probably the fact that it was absolutely unexpected, made it so memorable. As I consider myself as a low-budget traveler, I used Couchserfing to find someone who could host me. 4 days or so before my trip I found a man who used to host 3-5 travellers a week, but now he had taken a little break from it. Destiny , huh? One day he saw my request on Couchsurfings public page and decided to host me. Not only did he do that, but also he picked my up from the centre of Brussels, told me a lot of interesting facts about the country, showed me Namur and even allowed me to join a traditional Belgium dinner with his family. Kind of cool, isn’t it? My surprise was that I had been a little scared to use Couchserfing as a single girl traveler, but it turned out as a highlight of the whole trip to Belgium.

Namur, Belgium.

Netherlands, Amsterdam.

I guess this journey started already in Belgium when me and my friends took a buss from Belgium to Netherlands,

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Amsterdam. The price of the buss was only 8 euros. And yes, of course it is cheap, but we didn’t expect the amazing side effects of ,lets say, cheap-ness. As a first, the buss was around 30 minutes late, which is okay considering that it was a really busy and rainy day in Brussels which could cause the delay. But then we got in the buss and first we noticed that the toilet was closed. After 10 minutes the driver explained: “Yea… we have a toilet in the buss, but don’t use it! It is full. And we don’t have a self-service coffee, but you can buy Snickers from me. Also we have a wi-fi on board, but sometimes it is not working. So you can try it. Maybe it is working now.. or maybe not.. So, just enjoy your ride! “.

December in Morocco and United Kingdom.

Marrakech, Morocco.

The main goal of this particular trip was to go to the top of the Atlas mountains- Toubkal. And the whole trip was

Marrakesh, Morocco

both hard and amazing. And simply beautiful. But if I had to mark the highlight, still I would say it was the people of Morocco. Call it a culture shock if you will, but it was something I never experienced. The salesmen and saleswomen acting like you are their best friend. Most of them barely could speak any English, but that didn’t keep them from trying to sell something. And they do not give up. They follow you around showing everything they wanna sell. They use phrases like: “Good price, my friend. Only for you” or “It is a good deal, trust me”, but my absolute favourite was: “It is same, same, but different!”. The culture shock made it all appear as something really beautiful and unique to me.

London, United Kingdom.

3 days after I came back from Morocco, I had to go to London. First it was +30 degrees (celsius) in Morocco, then it was -7 at my home country and then +15 in London. I guess you never get used to these sudden changes. This was not the first time in London for me so I was not up for tourist attractions and meeting as many locals as possible, but this time it was for being there and fitting in. And the feeling of it was my highlight. I decided not to use metro or any other public transport, but to walk everywhere. Firstly, it is cheap, secondly, it gives you a chance to see things you wouldn’t have if you used a public transport. I used some offline maps and help of the locals to get from one place to another. I saw crashed buildings, some homeless people who sat around a bonfire. I saw a guy who was dancing on the street alone in the night. I found a hiking trail by accident and even a place in Greenwich where you can get a present just for visiting this place. I guess planning is not meant for everyone. The best experiences I had had by not planning a thing.

United Kingdom, London

7 countries visited in the year of 2015. Which could be the number for 2016?

]]>How did it all start?http://writingtravelers.com/stories/how-did-it-all-started/
http://writingtravelers.com/stories/how-did-it-all-started/#respondSun, 10 Jan 2016 16:38:16 +0000http://writingtravelers.com/?p=91I grew up in Latvia with no more than a dollar a day in my pocket. I saved money by not buying the food at school so I could buy a music CD at the end of the month. I started to work by helping my grandfather in his garden to earn some coins so I could buy some things I thought I needed. Everyday I heard from my parents that I needed to be modest and humble, that I need to be thankful for these little things I had and not hope for anything bigger.

Working in a small manufacturing company I spent a lot of time talking with my co-worker who was always telling stories about his family and his childhood. His early years in this World was almost like mine, only that he had four more brothers and sisters. So their pocket money for lunch at school was four times less than mine and their family were also very poor. But in spite of that the guy were saying almost every day – i am gonna be rich. I will have everything I’ve always dreamed of. If my father wasn’t wealthy it doesn’t mean that I am going to be the same. I will travel a lot and i will own every little thing I’ve every wanted. And I was sitting there at the computer on the next desk and I kinda started to like the idea. I also wanted to dream big and I wanted to allow me to believe in my dreams.

So I started to make some weird lists with countries I wanted to visit, with things I wanted to buy or to have. I printed out the picture of the car I wanted and I started to visualize how my future is going to look like in years.

Before that we both me and my colleague had never travelled before. Well I had been in few neighbour countries by bus or by car as a class trip or something. So the thing we did, we just bought the tickets to London, just for a 2 days or so. The idea was to tell ourselves that you can travel with no money and no particular plan or schedule. We just went to see one of the greatest cities in the World. We got the cheap tickets, we went to Stansted airport and then to the city center by bus. We walked around for twenty to thirty hours till we had seen everything, we took a lot of pictures, we just had an amazing time doing nothing but at the same time making ourselves believe that anything is possible.

I really became a believer that day. I started to believe in dreams, in possibilities and wanting big things. I guess the keywords for having that particular trip was wishing and taking and action. In other words – if you want to go somewhere, just go and take the first step towards your dream. Yes exactly, do not wait – buy the damn ticket baby.

]]>http://writingtravelers.com/stories/how-did-it-all-started/feed/0Do what you love. And love what you do.http://writingtravelers.com/stories/do-what-you-love-and-love-what-you-do/
http://writingtravelers.com/stories/do-what-you-love-and-love-what-you-do/#respondSun, 10 Jan 2016 16:09:09 +0000http://writingtravelers.com/?p=79I guess it was the end of the last year when two people with surprisingly many things in common just met somewhere in mountains of Northern Africa. They kinda shared similar experiences from the past, and also the situations in present. Even the jokes and interests were the same, so the connection was lovely and they became very good friends in a very short time, three days or so I would say. So the countless number of adventures happened in Africa and also on their way back home to Latvia, Northern Europe. Among these numerous talks about books, music, traveling the world and other tempting topics. Many new ideas emerged, one of which is this blog where two best passions – writing and traveling are connected and now given to you our dear readers.
photo credit – Lívia Cristina https://www.flickr.com/photos/liviacristinalc/

There is a saying that ‘doing what you love is freedom’ and ‘liking what you do is happiness’ and we definitely believe these truthful expressions. We both had been writing diaries on paper and also internet blogs before. We also enjoy traveling very much and this kind of seemed the perfect time for things to fall into their places, and the ‘writing travelers’ was born. We will gather some interesting and helpful information about the travels we have done before, the countries we’ve visited and encourage you to go to. We both love photography so we promise to give you also dozens of beautiful, engaging and top quality pictures from all over the World.

photo from the trip to Toubkal, Morocco, North Africa.

“Any dream is made possible by taking the first step. So whenever you want something, the whole universe will conspire for you to get it. But you have to take the step towards your dream and then you will be guided.” (Paulo Coelho)

There is a feeling that we had already taken the first step so you are welcome to follow. We believe that everything is possible, you just need to make wishes and start doing the things you always wanted.